Lester DeRosso
Lester DeRosso, also known as Lord DeRosso, is a non-player character in Bravely Default and Bravely Default: Praying Brage. He is the Archduke of Eternia, a member of the Council of Six, and keeper of the Vampire asterisk. Over the course of the story, Lord DeRosso and Sage Yulyana reveal their knowledge of the history of Luxendarc to the player party. D's Journal entries ;The Archduke Though Archduke of Eternia, he prefers the title Lord DeRosso. He is a man of mystery, with haunted, weary eyes. An immortal man from Eternia, holder of the vampire asterisk. Lamenting his undying form, he trained hard to master arts that seemed to fit his situation. Profile Appearance Lester has black, slicked back hair, very pale skin and red eyes. Since being branded a vampire by the Crystal Orthodoxy, he has gone to some lengths to try and fit this image, learning how to grow fangs with magic. He can also transform into a small black bat. He wears a white shirt with rolled up sleeves with a white cravat and a dark green vest. He wears long grey pants with white dress shoes and a long black cape. He wears a gold ornament on his left hip and a watch on his left wrist. Personality Lester DeRosso is a very enigmatic man. His voice is rather monotonous, and he often speaks with weary eyes and sometimes goes on tangents. He is a noble and intelligent soul, his mind sharpened by countless years of experience in the world. He has a bad habit of suddenly appearing in a cloud of smokes or in a form of a bat. He said that; even though he is immortal and fairly similar to a vampire, he is not one. Once rumors spread that he was from a family of vampires, he adopted the false persona in an attempt to scare people away. In his opinion, the smell of blood is too revolting for him to ever drink it. He said that his vampiric attributes, such as turning into a bat and growing fangs, were products of "long, long years of effort". Story Many centuries prior to the events of the game, Lester DeRosso was born of the House of DeRosso who supported the Kingdom of Eternia. Made clergyman of the Crystal Adventists at age nineteen, DeRosso later became a cardinal of the newly born Crystal Orthodoxy. However, DeRosso soon was forced out of his position for refusing to vote for the first grand patriarch, who orchestrated a scheme to eliminate the Kingdom of Eternia so that the Crystal Orthodoxy would gain full control of the Earth Crystal. His father murdered and their water supply poisoned, DeRosso was forced to hand his mother, Lilia DeRosso, over to them in exchange for his people's safety and his surrender. However, the attack was led by the archbishop who was responsible for the first patriarch's rise to power and refused DeRosso's surrender out of sheer hatred for him as he murdered Lilia. Forced to watch the innocents trapped in his manor suffer a lingering death by starvation, DeRosso set his home on fire with the intent to go down with it. Just as he was about to die, beginning to come to the realization that his persecution is unwarranted and that those responsible must pay, DeRosso heard a voice call out to him: "Accept me and I shall grant life everlasting. Though it shall be filled with grief, thou shalt have all eternity to wreak vengeance upon thine enemies". While the voice's identity was unknown to him at the time, DeRosso became an immortal and left the ruins of his home. Demonized as a vampire by the Orthodoxy, deciding to make use of their propaganda by giving himself the look, DeRosso gathered many followers who shared his malice towards the Orthodoxy. For the next few centuries, DeRosso battles the Orthodoxy from the shadows and engages the order's High Inquisitor Sage Yulyana in a series of battles that terraformed the countryside in each of the nations of Luxendarc. During their epic final battle 1800 years prior to the story on Norende, DeRosso and Sage stop fighting when an "angel" descends from the heavens and they attempt to save her from dying of her injuries, learning of the Evil One who would destroy Luxendarc by piercing the world's boundaries and of the events that would foretell its coming. Entrusted by the angel with a task only he can fulfill as an immortal before she died, DeRosso and Sage spoke for three days and nights before ultimately joining forces to prepare for the coming doom. From that point on, DeRosso faked his death to aid Sage from the shadows to try and stop the Harrowing. With the Orthodoxy losing its hold on the world, DeRosso returned to his ancestral home and rebuilt it as Frostcoffin Castle, christened Vampire Castle by the Orthodoxy. When the first two signs of the event occur, the uprising to Eternia's ridges and then the Great Plague, DeRosso and Sage proceed to establish Anticrystalism and enlist Braev Lee to become leader of their army with the intent to take the temples by force. However, the plan falls apart when the Orthodoxy attempts to invoke the Grand Ritual, resulting with Braev taking control of their order and DeRosso removed from leadership by being named archduke of Frostcoffin Castle. Fifteen years later, when the event he and Sage waited for begins coming to pass, DeRosso knocks the wind vestal's group out at Eternian Central Command and hands them over to Alternis Dim, stating that it is a matter of friendly concern. He expresses an interest in Edea to Alternis, telling him that he may throw the other three in the dungeons if he wishes and informing him of the deaths of Victor S. Court and Victoria F. Stein, lamenting that he never had the chance to meet them. DeRosso later meets with Braev and tells the Templar that his act to claim the crystals and use them to further society, though praising him for doing what he and Sage failed to accomplish, was done too hastily. After Braev's defeat by the wind vestal's party, DeRosso assures the distraught Edea that her father is not dead, merely unconscious though he may never wield his sword again. He explains to Edea that her fears concerning awakening the Earth Crystal are misplaced, formally introducing himself and informs the party that Braev has advanced science and medicine in Eternia by a hundred years, and that while they cannot cure Mahzer Lee, they can still treat her even if the Earth Crystal were to be awakened. He then goes on to say that it is ironic that he would be the one to urge them to awaken the crystal. He tells Edea that she reminds him of her father in his youth, but there is still much that she cannot fathom. He mentions some of the things he has seen along the course of his immortal life, the rise and fall of the Orthodoxy being one of them. After defeating Braev Lee, the party can go to Vampire Castle, where upon attempting to enter, Lord DeRosso's voice tells the party that if they wish to enter, they should seek the six keystones scattered across the lands to prove themselves worthy. When the party returns after acquiring all the keystones, they are granted access to the castle. Speaking with Lord DeRosso about the paintings depicting the important events of his life on each floor, the party learns his backstory and eventually battles him on the final floor. Defeated, DeRosso reveals his alliance with Sage to combat the doom that is to come. Alternate versions of DeRosso can also be encountered in later chapters, offering a deeper insight into his backstory from why he bore no grudge on Braev's actions. In the Fourth World, DeRosso sees a kindred spirit in Victor S. Court and agrees to help him in his research to save Victoria by giving him a lock of his hair, having him promise to name the first new life created through the sample after his mother. In the Fifth World, noting this to be some sort of punishment by Braev, DeRosso is grouped with Duchy's most disturbing members (Victoria F. Stein, Fiore DeRosa, and Ciggma Khint) as the last line of defense against the wind vestal's group when they come to Eternia Central Command. In the final world, with Ouroboros's arrival into his reality, that Lucendarc's version of DeRosso carries out his promise to the angel by merging into the monster's core. Using his own immortality to negate Ouroboros's regeneration, DeRosso dies with the monster when he is finally destroyed. But prior to his sacrifice, as the Infernal Realm transcends time and space, DeRosso begins a bootstrap paradox by saying the very words he heard long ago so that a past version of himself would hear it. As revealed in Bravely Second: End Layer, indirectly mentioned by Altair's entries as the sage's "friends-in-arms", DeRosso helped an ailing Yulyana place the Holy See treasures they stored in Dimension's Hasp in new pocket dimensions created in the Ruins of Centro Keep and the Underflow under Mount Karka. As an added test, DeRosso placed his dragons with the treasures to guard them and test those worthy of their use. DeRosso disappeared from Luxendarc after that, with the being known as Yōko taking over Vampire Castle for her own use. Gameplay Lester DeRosso is only fought during sub-quests from Chapter 4 onwards, and gives the Vampire asterisk upon defeat. In the final chapter of the game, he can be fought alongside Sage. Defeating him in the final chapter also unlocks Dimension's Hasp, where Sage sealed away the most powerful weapons. Creation and development Voice Lester is voiced by Hiroki Tōchi in the Japanese version. He shares his Japanese voice actor with Yaag Rosch from Final Fantasy XIII, Cor Leonis from Final Fantasy XV and Zhuyu Voghfau Byot from Final Fantasy Type-0. He is voiced by Popeye Vogelsang in the English version. Other appearances ''Bravely Default: Praying Brage Lester appears as an obtainable unit. BDPB Vampire.png|Artwork. BDPB Lester DeRosso.png|Close-up. Non-''Final Fantasy Appearances ''Fantasy Earth Zero'' Lester's hairstyle appeared in a collaboration event.http://www.fezero.jp/collaboration/BDFtS/introduction/ Other media LINE Lester appears on a sticker set for the LINE communications app. The sticker set he appears in is titled "Bravely Stickers - Volume 1".https://store.line.me/stickershop/product/1209021/en Gallery BD Lester DeRosso Concept Artwork.png|Concept artwork. DeRosso Sketch.jpg|Artwork. BD Lester Card1.png|AR card. Etymology His name may be a reference to Lestat de Lioncourt, the vampire hero of Anne Rice's successful Vampire Chronicles series of novels and films. References Category:Characters in Bravely Default Category:Blue Mages